Machine for mounting holding strips on elongated articles,preferably bottles



Feb 3, 1970 H. FOCKE 3,492,778

MACHINE FORMOUNTING HOLDING STRIPS ON ELONGATED ARTICLES, PREFERABLY BOTTLES I Filed Nov. 7, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 '7 Fig.1

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MACHINE FOR MOUNTING HOLDING STRIPS ON ELONGATED ARTICLES, PREFERABLY BOTTLES Filed Nov. '7, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig.8

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Inventor: Hsi/vz F0 CKE ATTYJZ Feb. 3, 1970 H. FOCKE 3,4 ,77

MACHINE FOR MOUNTING HOLDING STRIPS ON ELONGATED ARTICLES, PREFERABLY BOTTLES Filed Nov. 7, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 inventor-.-

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United States Patent O 3,492,778 MACHINE FOR MOUNTING HOLDING STRIPS ON ELONGATEI) ARTICLES, PREFERABLY BOTTLES Heinz Focke, Siemensstrasse, Verden, Germany Filed Nov. 7, 1967, Ser. No. 681,197 Claims priority, application Germany, Sept. 30, 1967, F 53,631, F 32,962 Int. Cl. B65b 21/06, 27/04, 43/32 US. Cl. 5349 19 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention provides a machine for mounting set-up holding strips formed from foldable blanks on elongated articles, preferably bottles, which comprises a magazine containing folding-down blanks for forming said holding strips and a setting-up station receiving said blanks one by one and in which said blanks are set up by the exertion of pressure on diagonally opposed edges of the blanks. Furthermore, the machine comprises means for mounting the set-up holding strips one after the other on groups of elongated articles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a machine for mounting holding strips, formed from foldable blanks, on elongated articles, preferably bottles.

Holding strips for bottles are already known. They are substantially trapezoidal or triangular in cross section. The known holding strips made from a blank of cardboard, however, do not ensure sufficient durability and a stiff connection between the bottles.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved holding strip of foldable material, particularly cardboard, which ensures an increased stiffness when mounted and thereby an increased holding stability on the elongated articles so that they are not movable relative to one another.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a machine for mounting the holding strips made of foldable material on elongated articles.

To attain these objects, the present invention provides a machine for mounting holding strips formed from a foldable blank on elongated articles, which comprises a magazine containing a plurality of folded-down blanks for forming holding strips; a setting-up station for the holding strips arranged beside the magazine; means for feeding said fold-eddown blanks one by one from the magazine to the setting-up station; means for consecutively setting up the folded-down blanks by exerting pressure on diagonally opposed edges of the folded-down blanks to obtain set-up holding strips having bottom, top and longitudinal side walls; means for mounting the setup holding strips individually on a group of elongated articles, and means for bending the middle portions of the longitudinal side Walls of the set-up holding strips v against the elongated articles.

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Further features of the invention relate to the feeding of the folded-down blanks to the setting-up station, to purely mechanically setting up of the blanks and to mounting the set-up blanks or holding strips on groups of elongated articles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a folded-down blank for producing a set-up holding strip in a machine according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross section through the blank according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a similar view of the blank in set-up position;

FIG. 4 is an end view of a set-up holding strip in mounted condition;

FIG. 5 is a schematic side elevational view, on a reduced scale, of a set-up holding strip mounted on three bottles;

FIG. 6 is a schematic side elevational view, partly in section, of the machine according to the invention;

FIG. 7 is a similar view, on an enlarged scale, of a detail of the machine;

FIG. 8 is a similar view of the setting-up station of the machine in another position;

FIG. 9 is a similar view showing a set-up and mounted holding strip;

FIG. 10 is a schematic top plan view of a detail of the feeding means for the bottles;

FIG. 11 is a cross section through FIG. 10';

FIG. 12 is a top plan view, on an enlarged scale, of the lifting device for the bottles;

FIG. 13 is a vertical cross section through part of the machine, and

FIG. 14 is a top plan view of FIG. 13.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIGS. 1 to 5 of the drawings show a holding strip 10 made of foldable material, preferably cardboard, and formed from a suitably cut and scored one-piece blank providing, when set up, a bottom wall 11, a top wall 12 and two longitudinal sidewalls 13 and 14. The individual walls are connected with each other on marked fold lines 15. The bottom wall 11 and the top wall 12 have lower and upper holes 16 and 17, respectively, that provide for the passage of bottle necks 18 or of other elongated articles to be carried by the holding strip.

The set-up holding strip 10 serves to connect and hold a plurality of elongated articles which in the preferred embodiment shown and described are assumed to be bottles 19. FIG. 5 shows three bottles 19 engaged by a holding strip 10, the holes 16 and 17 being so arranged that in engaged condition the bottles 19 have very slight or no gaps between them. The bottle necks 18 pass through the lower holes 16 and the upper holes 17 so that the edges 20 of the upper holes 17 in the top wall 12 find support on the collar 21 of the bottles 19. The edges of the lower hole 16 are preferably supported under tension on the wider region of the bottle neck 18 so that the entire holding strip 10 is stressed and the bottles 19 are connected to each other without the possibility of relative movement.

As can be seen from FIG. 4, arching or bending the longitudinal side walls 13 and 14 inwardly provides for increased durability and rigidity of the holding strip. In the illustrated embodiment longitudinal bends 22 and 23 extend approximately in the middle portion of the side walls 13 and 14 along weakening lines in the form of for example perforations 24 and 25 provided in the blank 3 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. Advantageously, the bends 22 and 23 find support on the bottle neck 18 thereby making a good bracing possible.

As shown in FIG. 1, the edges 20 of the upper holes 17 are shaped, so that a plurality of radial open-ended slots 26 define a plurality of resilient tongues 27 which resiliently engage the collar 21 of the bottle neck 18 from below and, due to their resiliency, make it possible to mount the holding strip 10 without damaging it.

FIGS. 6 to 14 show details of a machine for the fully automatic mounting of holding strips, in particular of the holding strips 10 according to FIGS. 1 to 5, on elongated articles.

The machine proposed by the invention operates in accordance with the fundamental idea of first setting up the incoming holding strips 10 which are folded down as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in a setting-up station 28, whereupon they have substantially the shape shown in FIG. 3, and then setting them on a group of bottles 19 which are held ready (FIG. Setting the set-up holding strips on the bottle necks 18 can be done either by lowering the set-up holding strip 10 onto the bottles 19, or, as in the illustrated embodiment, by inserting the bottles 19 from underneath into the set-up holding strip 10 in such a way that the bottle necks 18 pass partly through the holes 16 and 17.

The folded-down holding strips 10 are arranged in a stack Within a magazine 29 of the machine and are removed therefrom through the bottomless lower end of the magazine 29 at equal time intervals by a reciprocating sliding plate 30 and fed to the setting-up station 28 (FIGS. 6 to 9). For this purpose, the reciprocating sliding plate 30 is equipped with a catch edge 31 which takes the respective undermost flat holding strip 10 out of the magazine 29.

The molding strip 10 which is still flat is carried along to a movable setting-up device 32 by the transverse motion of the reciprocating sliding plate 30. The settingup device 32 is of substantially bar-shaped configuration and has downwardly directed recesses 63 to accommodate the upper end of the bottles 19, as well as 21 depending nose 33 in which a small horizontal groove 34 is formed. The leading edge 35 (FIG. 7) of the fiat holding strip 10 enters this groove 34, and the trailing edge 36 which, in the set-up position of the holding strip 10 (FIG. 3) lies diagonally opposite the edges 35, finds support in the setting-up station 28 on at least one pivotable detent 37 which is raised when the reciprocating sliding plate 30 moves from the leftto the right-hand side in FIGS. 6 to 9, and is lowered so as to engage the edge 36- of the holding strip 10 when the reciprocating sliding plate 30 returns into its initial position thereby retaining the holding strip 10 in the position shown in FIG. 7.

Now the setting-up operation is initiated by exerting pressure on the diagonally opposed edges 35 and 36 while the setting-up device 32 simultaneously moves along an arc indicated by a dot and dash line in FIGS. 7 to 9. The setting-up device 32 moves along a quarter circle the radius of which corresponds to the height of the longitudinal sidewalls 13 and 14 of the holding strip 10. In this stage of the setting up operation, the diagonally opposed edges 35 and 36 of the holding strip 10 are held in the position shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 by the setting-up device 32 on one side and the pivotable detent 37 on the other.

To carry out these motions the setting-up device 32 is actuated by a linkage system in the form of a parallelogram. This linkage system consists of an L-shaped arm 38 and links 39 and 40. These links 39 and 40 extend parallel to each other and are mounted pivotable at one end on the L-shaped arm 38, and on stationary pivot bearings 41 and 42 at the other end. The effective lengths of the links 39 and 40 and thus the path of motion of the setting-up device 32 are adjustable so that the machine m y b adap ed to different ize of holding strips 10,

In the illustrated embodiment, a group of bottles 19 is inserted from underneath in the stationary set-up holding strip 10 by a lifter 43 seen in FIGS. 9 and 12. During the insertion of the bottle necks 18 in the holding strip 10, synchronously controlled pressing bars 44 and 45 which are movable by means of swing arms 46 and 47 come to bear against the holding strip 10 in the area of the perforations 24 and 25 and form the bends, the nominal height of the holding strip 10 being simultaneously shortened in accordance with the upward motion of the bottles 19. The top wall 12 of the holding strip 10 finds support on the facing side of the setting-up device 32 as the bottles 19 are inserted in the holding strip 10 while the upper ends of the bottles enter the recesses 63 in the setting-up device 32.

Furthermore, an upright support plate 64 is provided in the setting-up station 28 on which the setting-up device 32 and the holding strip 10 find support in the upright position of the latter (see particularly FIG. 9). This support plate 64 serves simultaneously as a limit to the rotary motion of the setting-up device 32.

The supplying of the bottles 19 to which a holding strip 10 is to be fitted takes place in a particular manner which will now be described. The bottles 19 are set by hand or in some other suitable manner onto a feed belt 48. Guide rods 49 are vertically adjustable on correspondingly constructed mounts 50.

The bottles 19 are fed by the feed belt 48 to the lifter 43 located under the setting-up station 28. This lifter 43 (FIG. 12) has a carrier plate which is intended to support, for example, three bottles 19 standing closely next to each other. According to FIGS. 7 and 12, the carrier plate has a horseshoe-shaped, preferably stationary raised edge portion 51 against which the incoming bottles 19 bear and which serves to align the bottles 19 on the carrier plate, i.e. on the lifter 43. The upward motion of the lifter 43 is controlled by swingable levers 52 which are connected to the stationary raised edge portion 51 and can by way of example actuate a photo-electric device. The control takes place in such a manner that the lifter 43 can only move upwards once all three bottles 19 are aligned on the lifter 43.

In order to lay the bottles 19 provided with the holding strip 10 off onto a discharge belt 53 (FIG. 7), a layingotf device 54 is provided which has laying-01f arms 55 and 56 engaging the bottles 19 between the bottle necks 18 and under the holding strip 10 (FIG. 14). The layingoif device 54 is actuated together with the reciprocating sliding plate 30. The reciprocating sliding plate 30 has slide bodies 57 on which it can slide to and fro on guide rods 58. The laying-off device 54 is secured to both sides i of the slide bodies 57 by means of swing arms 59. The

free ends of swing arms 59 are provided with rollers 60 running on guideways 61. The guideways 61 are so designed that by the transverse motion of the reciprocating sliding plate 30 from left to right in FIG. 6 the laying-off device 54 is first moved along parallel to the latter. Once the holding strip 10 holding the bottles 19 is supported on the laying-off arms 55 and 56, the laying-off device 54 moves on bevelled edges 62 of the guideways 61 obliquely downwards enabling the bottles 19 with the holding strip 10 to be laid off onto the discharge belt 53 (see FIG. 7).

The machine proposed by the invention enables a fully automatic mounting of holding strips on elongated articles, such as bottles, with a high efficiency and very little expenditure of labor.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

1. A machine for mounting holding strips formed from a foldable blank on elongated articles, comprising:

(a) a magazine containing a plurality of folded-down blanks for forming holding strips;

(b) a setting-up station for the holding strips arranged beside the magazine;

(0) means for feeding said folded-down blanks one by one from the magazine to the setting-up station;

(d) means for consecutively setting up the folded-down blanks by exerting pressure on diagonally opposed edges of the folded-down blanks to obtain set-up holding strips having bottom, top and longitudinal sidewalls;

(e) means for mounting the set-up holding strips individually on a group of elongated articles, and

(f) means for bending the middle portions of the longitudinal sidewalls of the set-up holding strips against the elongated articles.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the top and bottom walls of the set-up holding strips have holes for the passage therethrough of a portion of the elongated articles, the edges of the holes in the top wall bearing against projections formed on the elongated articles.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein weakening lines for the formation of the inwardly bent middle portions are provided in the longitudinal sidewalls of the set-up holding strips.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 2, where in the elongated articles are bottles and the inwardly directed middle portions of thelongitudinal sidewalls bear against the bottle necks.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 2, wherein the holes in the top wall are provided with resilient tongues which bear against the projections formed on the elongated articles.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 2, wherein the set-up holding strips are held and fitted to the elongated articles by lifting the group of elongated articles and passing their upper ends through the holes in the top and bottom walls of the holding strip.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for bending the middle portions of the longitudinal sidewalls of the set-up holding strips comprise transversely extending pressing bars arranged to be moved against the longitudinal sidewalls of the set-up holding strips for the formation of the inwardly directed middle portions during the mounting of the set-up holding strips on the elongated articles.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for feeding the folded-down blanks one by one from the magazine to the setting-up station comprise a reciprocable sliding plate having a catch edge and the setting-up station comprises at least one pivotable detent for holding a folded-down holding strip at one of its edges, said sliding plate being adapted to move under the pivotable detent and to raise it.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein in the setting-up station the edge diagonally opposite said one edge is engageable by a setting-up device which is movable from a position in which the holding strip is foldeddown into a position in which the holding strip is set up.

10. A machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein the setting-up device has a depending nose with a groove for the reception of said first mentioned edge of the holding strip.

11. A machine as claimed in claim 9, wherein the setting-up device is movable along an are by means of a linkage system in the form of a parallelogram.

12. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the means for mounting the set-up holding strips comprise a lifter for pushing a group of elongated articles from underneath into a set-up holding strip, the top wall of the holding strip coming into engagement with the facing side of the setting-up device as the upper portions of the elongated articles enter whilst the upper ends of these upper portions enter recesses formed in the setting-up device.

13. A machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein the lifter has a stationary raised edge portion serving to arrange the elongated articles on said lifter.

14. A machine as claimed in claim 12, wherein the lifter is located at the discharge end of a feed belt on which the elongated articles may be separately set.

15. A machine as claimed in claim 14, wherein the feed belt is provided with guides, preferably guide rods which line up the elongated articles in rows on the feed belt.

16. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein a layingolf device is provided for depositing the elongated articles joined by a holding strip on a discharge belt.

17. A machine as claimed in claim 16, wherein the laying-off device has laying-off arms for engagement between the upper portions of the elongated articles in such a manner that the holding strip finds support on said laying-oif arms.

18. A machine as claimed in claim 16, wherein the laying-off device reciprocates together with a reciprocable sliding plate end is moved to lie in an oblique position in the final stage of its movement so as to deposit the elongated articles on the discharge belt.

19. A machine as claimed in claim 18, wherein the laying-otf device is arranged on a swingable arm and the free end of this swingable arm rides with rollers on a guideway which on its discharge end is provided with bevelled edges to guide the oblique motion of the laying-off device.

US. Cl. X.R. 

